


I got issues, but you got 'em too.

by anxious_alien



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms
Genre: AU, All-Human, F/M, Klaus is a drunk mess, One-Shot, caroline is a cop, have fun with that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 01:44:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17992475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxious_alien/pseuds/anxious_alien
Summary: In which Caroline is a cop sent to look into a public intoxication complaint, and the culprit is none other than her absolute wreck of an ex-boyfriend, Klaus Mikaelson. Great. Just great.





	I got issues, but you got 'em too.

“Yeah, we got a call about a public intoxication on 1st street, any units in the area who can look into it?” came a voice over Caroline’s radio. She grimaced, she _was_ pretty close by.

“I got it.” She radioed back. She had like, a half hour left in her shift. Hopefully this drunk bastard would be easy to deal with any she could get home and crawl into bed at a reasonable time.  It was only 10pm. Who could be that drunk at 10pm on a Wednesday?

She kept her lights off as she drove down the street. There were a few people out, but for the most part, things looked pretty quiet.

She spotted him, and groaned audibly.

Of course it would be Klaus Mikaelson. Her insufferable ex-boyfriend. She cursed herself for taking this call.

Maybe today he would be reasonable. Doubtful though. His mood when drunk depended entirely on what he had been drinking. _Please not tequila. Hopefully bourbon. Vodka would be slightly less awful as well._

She stepped out of her cruiser and did her best to maintain a professional demeanor. She would be the bigger person. She would resist the urge to use a taser on his stupid, arrogant ass.

“Mr. Mikaelson. We got a call stating you were publicly intoxicated and making a scene.” She said with authority in her voice. He was sitting on the curb, loudly singing. He stopped, looked at her, and grinned.

“ _Officer_ Forbes.” He said far too loudly. “Fancy seeing you here.”

She shook her head. “Klaus, what are you _doing_ out here? Go home. Do you need a lift?”

“Oh, no love, I’m all good here.” He replied, “I think that couple just called in on me because I might’ve yelled quite a few colorful things in their direction and threw a bottle at them.”

“You _what?_ Dammit, Klaus, I’m on duty. Did anyone get hurt?”

“Oh no, I missed.” He frowned. “They didn’t seem to heed my warning that one of them would just end up heartbroken and alone and-”

“I’m calling your brother to come get you.” Caroline cut him off. No way was he going to finish that thought right now.

Klaus did not even need to be told with brother she was referring to. “Elijah’s gone. They’re all gone. My family has finally abandoned me once and for all.”

 _Yeah, because you’re you._ She wanted to say, but she maintained professionalism.

She really didn’t want to arrest him, and do the paperwork, for something this insignificant. But she did need to get him off the street so he would stop being a public nuisance.

“Listen, just get in the car.” She sighed, “I’ll get you home.”

“Well, that’s very forward of you, Officer Forbes.” He winked at her. If she wasn’t in uniform she’d slap him.

“ _Your_ home, you absolute-”

“Oh, we’re doing this at my place then? I wish I’d known, I would have tidied up.”

She didn’t get paid enough for this. She grabbed his shoulder and helped him to his feet. He stumbled and leaned against her and she forced him upright and kept a firm grip on his bicep as she guided him to the car. “You’re not going to handcuff me?” he asked, his voice suggestive. Caroline silently cursed.

“I think we’ll manage.” She said through gritted teeth. She instinctively put a hand on his head as she helped him into the back, and he nearly pulled her into the seat with him as he lost balance towards the end and fell into the car.

“Darling, you really must stop throwing yourself at me.” He said in a low voice that sent an involuntary shiver through her.

“Could you just…shut up, for like five whole minutes in your life?”

She righted herself and slammed the door shut. She stood outside the car for a moment, and checked her watch. Her shift was up. She still had some things to do at the station, but she called and told them she’d just come in early in the morning and deal with it. Who knew how long this ordeal would last. Klaus was not known for being predictable.

Klaus and his siblings had rolled into Mystic Falls, their birthplace, about two years ago. According to Klaus when he’d first met Caroline, it had been Elijah’s attempt at forging new, healthier relationships between the Mikaelson siblings. It had somewhat worked. They were just as likely to be codependent disasters as they were to completely shut each other out.

It was one of the many, many reasons why Caroline had ended things with Klaus six months ago.

“He’s gone. They’re all gone.” Klaus said quietly from the backseat. He had been strangely silent for the past few minutes.

“Oh, please, they’ll come back.” She refused to get sucked in. He did not deserve her sympathy.

“No. I think I’ve finally driven them away.” He said softly. “Even Elijah.”

“Klaus, I know your family. I’ve had dysfunctional thanksgiving dinner with your family. They will drag you back into the fold eventually whether you want to be dragged back or not. Cool it on the pity party.”

“I got a girl pregnant.”

Caroline slammed on the breaks. Klaus flew forward in his seat and his head smacked against the plexiglass.

“What—why aren’t you wearing a seat-belt!?” Caroline exclaimed. “Oh my god, are you okay?”

“I thought cops had to be half-way decent drivers.”

Caroline was still reeling. “You got someone _pregnant_?”

“Yes. Her name is Hayley. Pretty girl, hates the very air that I breathe.”

“So you two aren’t…like…?”

“Oh, god no. It was a one-night-stand. I was lonely, and you had started seeing that guy on the force, Steven or whatever.”

“Stefan.” They’d gone out twice. The second time, Klaus had barged into the restaurant, belligerently drunk, and started a huge screaming match with Caroline right there in front of Stefan and everyone. Later in the evening, she broke down crying in Stefan’s car about how she just didn’t know how to help Klaus Mikaelson.

There had not been a third date.

“Anyway, my family isn’t exactly functional or healthy. I told her she’d be better off terminating-”

“Good lord, Klaus.” Caroline muttered, shaking her head.

“And of course, she didn’t take kindly to that. Elijah seems to have taken a liking to her though.” She saw him make a face in the rearview mirror. “They’ve all decided to take her in, to make up for my poor behavior, and no one is speaking to me.”

She couldn’t exactly blame them. She had called Klaus many things over the past few months. She would have never thought of him as the type to abandon his own child though. Family meant everything to him, despite how much he fought with his siblings.

“Klaus…” she said gently. She started driving again, they were just a minute or so from his house anyway. “You need to do the right thing.”

“I _was_ doing the right thing. Nothing good has ever come from our family. No child deserves the burden of our family name.”

“Oh yeah, it’d be a real shame to be the heir to the Mikaelson fortune. What a tragedy.” Caroline said sarcastically. She knew it wasn’t quite that simple. Their family had not been without hardship, and she knew their father had been a harsh man.

His father whom was not _actually_ his father. Klaus’s mother had had an affair. When the truth came out, it made headlines. The divorce had been the number one topic of interest in the country just a few years ago. The Mikaelson children scattered, and eventually faded from the public eye for a while.

Mr. Mikaelson died under mysterious circumstances two years ago. His wife had disappeared entirely. The children convened in Mystic Falls and managed to keep a relatively low profile there. The press had moved on once they made it clear they would not be entertaining the media circus. That was sort of how Caroline had met Klaus. She’d been in training at the time, but she’d been along with other officers to speak with his family on dealing with the reporters on several occasions. Eventually, he managed to get her to agree to a date. It was a whirlwind from there, for better or worse.

She pulled up to his house and opened the door to the back seat. “Come on, let’s get you inside.” She said. She still had a key to his front door.

She helped him stumble inside and he landed rather haphazardly on the couch.

“Will you be okay from here?” she asked him. He’d dropped a bombshell on her, and her instinct was telling her to stay and be there for him, even now. _Go home, idiot,_ she chided herself.

He smiled sadly at her. There was no hint of the self-assured smirk he usually wore. “You called me a toxic black hole where happiness goes to die.”

“Yeah, well…I was really mad. That doesn’t mean you should give up the chance to be a good father.”

“You said there was not one redeemable quality about me.” He reminded her. She groaned.

“Are you really going to let one person define your entire existence? I thought you were a little more conceited than that.” She gave in and sat down on the couch beside him. She at least had to make sure he was a little less suicidal before she left.

“It doesn’t matter. It seems Hayley and the baby will have Elijah either way. He was always the best of us.” Klaus smirked at her. “Don’t go shacking up with Finn or Kol, please.”

“Finn is married and Kol is a total player. I’m good, thanks.”

She sat for a minute, knowing it was going to get harder to leave with every passing minute. Finally she rose and went to the kitchen to get him some water. “Drink this. Stay hydrated.”

“You really think I should give it a shot? Do the whole father thing?” he asked, staring straight down at the floor. Ugh, why did _she_ need to be the person to help him through this?

“I think it would be good for you. I think you’d be a good father.” She meant it. Before she’d finally called it quits, she’d considered a future with him. But towards the end, they argued over everything. Mostly Caroline’s fears about all the things Klaus wanted. He wanted so many things, and she had only ever known Mystic Falls and the expectation of following in her mother’s footsteps. Her mother, the retired sheriff, whom everyone loved and respected and told Caroline often enough that they were sure she would grow up to be “just like Liz.”

“You should get some sleep.” She said to him. “Sort all this out when you’re sober.”

She stood up to leave, and he caught her hand in his. “Stay. Just a little longer.”

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea.” She was still in uniform for god’s sake. Her car was sitting in full view in his drive way. This was a small, small town. He pulled her back down in the seat beside him though and she didn’t stop him. She really needed a drink. Something to blame this poor decision on.

“We could have traveled the world together, you and me.” He whispered, dangerously close to her ear. She forgot how to breathe for a moment.

“It isn’t practical.”

“Is this really the life you want, Caroline Forbes?” he asked, searching her eyes. Here it was again, the same old argument.

“I’m good at my job, Klaus. I like my job. I have friends here, family…”

“Do you _really_ like your job? Or is it just convenient?” he pressed. He should not be this intuitive while drunk. It wasn’t fair. “You know I have the utmost respect for your mother, but you’re not her. You don’t have to be her. What do _you_ want?”

She needed to leave. Right now. “I should-” He silenced her with a kiss, hungry and desperate. His hand rested on the back of her neck suddenly and the other hand trailed up her arm. She was startled at first, and then against her better judgment she found herself returning the kiss. After several minutes, she finally broke away.

“Klaus, I can’t do this.” She whispered, “And you have a lot to take care of right now. You have a lot on your plate suddenly.”

“I don’t think I can do it without you.” He still held her close, refusing to let go.

She sucked in a breath, knowing the words she was about to say were dangerous. “If I promise to meet you for lunch tomorrow, will you go to sleep and let me leave in peace? I’ll help you figure all this out, I promise. But I can’t stay here. Not like this.”

He seemed conflicted. But he relented, and drew away from her. She hated that she ached to stay there with him, and that she ached to be in his embrace again. “Goodnight, Klaus. You’re going to be alright.” It took all the power in the world to walk out the door. God, what was she getting herself into?

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up getting a bit more deep than I intended!


End file.
